[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER W EPISODE 7 - “LOOKING FOR C - PHILIP CAN’T STAND IT”



I’m going to go ahead and say that any episode that can be even briefly summarized as “Shotaro gets questioned at a high school for being a creep, while Philip becomes so obsessed with learning a dance move that he almost gets Double killed” is going to be a winner of an episode, despite whatever flaws it might have. And this one’s a winner! It’s fleet and enjoyable throughout, with a terrific blend of fast-paced action and completely absurd moments. The mystery is sort of just a thin framework for a story of high school romance, broken dreams, inconvenient bus rides, roachman message board vigilantes, street dancing declarations of hope, cat monsters that are maybe better than a son-in-law, piggyback rides, and a couple idol singers as informants. It’s… I mean, it’s a very full meal, this one.

I don’t know that it’s a particularly intriguing mystery, as far as that sort of thing goes. Roachstar’s identity isn’t even vaguely teased, beyond probably being a high school student, and no one seems to be trying to put any clues together yet. It’s an episode that’s about trying to figure out, like, Point One of this whole story, since we don’t even have a client to give us some basics. (I do love that the client just throws a rock through the Narumi Detective Agency’s window, and Akiko’s like Hey Money. Akiko, you’re gonna have to spend that money to replace the window your client broke when they hired you! This is why you’re all broke!) The bulk of the episode is just getting us up to the point where we learn that Dango’s former dance partner is Chizuru, who left him for the swim team. The entire episode is spent getting there. It’s a fun episode, but it all feels like prequel for finding out why these two broke up, and how their rift can be mended.

Luckily, the path to get to the basic setup of the mystery is relentlessly fun. The couple Roachstar fights are visually impressive and clever in their tactics, while the Mick chase is tense and unexpected. And the gags! So many good, very weird gags in this episode! Getting Philip out of the basement makes his partnership with Shotaro even more tenuous, and I laughed out loud at Philip asking Shotaro to hurry up and beat Roachstar so Philip can get back to his investigation. Both parts of Double are hard at work on their plots this episode, and it makes this thing feel twice as good as any episode that preceded it.

And it’s all in service of a convoluted story about partnerships, and maintaining focus, and what happens when you don’t want the same things any more. Very fun story to tell on a show about a two-in-one detective!

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DIE-A MEMORIES



-Queen and Elizabeth! A couple bratty high schoolers are a neat way into the Shotaro half of this story, even if the two actors are… I’m sure they’re very good singers! I like how the addition of another strata of intelligence and information makes Shotaro seem even more effective at his job, despite *gestures to Shotaro’s generally embarrassing hard-boiled nonsense*.